New scientific studies reveal that dogs were companions to humans thousands of years before the end of the last ice age. Papers published in the prestigious journal Nature on Wednesday identify the remains of a female puppy that lived approximately 15,800 years ago in present-day Turkey as the earliest-known dog. The discovery pushes back the timeline by nearly 5,000 years compared to the previously known oldest dog.

Researchers uncovered a piece of the dog's skull at Pinarbasi, a rock shelter site used by ancient hunter-gatherers. According to Laurent Frantz of Ludwig Maximilian University in Munich, DNA analysis indicates the pup was "a few months old" and likely resembled a small wolf. Frantz is a co-author of a study examining the distribution of dogs across Europe and Asia during the Paleolithic period.

The exact role dogs played among early humans remains unclear. However, Frantz noted that while the ancient human-dog relationship might have differed from modern bonds, "kids will still have played with puppies." Geneticist Anders Bergström of the University of East Anglia, co-author of the same study, echoed this sentiment: "Dogs do not always have very clearly defined roles or purposes for humans. Perhaps their primary role is often just to provide companionship."

Artifacts from the Pinarbasi site provide compelling evidence of a deep bond between the species. William Marsh, a postdoctoral researcher at the Ancient Genomics Laboratory of the Francis Crick Institute in London, stated, "At Pinarbasi, we have both human and dog burials, with dogs buried alongside humans." Additionally, there is evidence that hunter-gatherers at the site fed fish to their dogs.

Dogs are believed to have been domesticated earlier than any other animal, descending from gray wolves, though similarities between the species make distinguishing their remains challenging. Despite this uncertainty, Marsh indicated that dog and wolf populations diverged at least 24,000 years ago. Bergström and colleagues also identified the oldest dog in Europe from 14,200-year-old remains in Switzerland's Kesslerloch. The ancient European dogs appear to share ancestors with Asian dogs, suggesting a single domestication event. Nevertheless, Bergström cautioned that key questions about "when, where and why people domesticated dogs still remain largely unanswered."

Source: www.dw.com